In the past decade nanoimprint has been developed to a serious alternative for next generation lithography (NGL). In this work, the most recent developments of UV-nanoimprint Lithography (UV-NIL) with special emphasis to the work accomplished at AMO and the 1HT-RWTH Aachen are reviewed and functional applications demonstrated. Further the potentials of various UV-NIL concepts are evaluated and possible interests in certain application areas are discussed. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.